POPE MEETS VOLUNTEERS FOR HEALTH CARE, POOR AND MIGRANTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 10, 2001 (VIS) - The Pope received today in St. Peter's Basilica the volunteers of the diocese of Rome who work in the areas of health care, migrants, and service to the poor of the city. The meeting, which began with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general of Rome, was promoted to coincide with the International Year of Volunteer Work.

"Thank you," John Paul II said, "for the generous witness which you offer in a society often dominated by the desire to have and to possess! As faithful disciples and imitators of Christ, you are urged to go against the current, accomplishing the Gospel choice to serve your brothers, not only because you are moved by the desire to achieve legitimate objectives of social justice, but also, and above all, because you are animated by the unstoppable force of divine charity."

The Holy Father referred to the deficiencies in Rome's social services and to the inadequacies of basic services in some areas, as well as "the marginalization in which beggars, nomads, drug addicts, and those with AIDS live, not to mention the disintegration of the family which punishes the weakest persons, and the forms of physical and psychological violence against women and children. How can we forget, furthermore, the problems related to immigration, and to the increase in the number of elderly who are alone, and of the sick and the needy. This worrying social scenario ... calls upon institutions, but in particular Christian communities."

"In order to carry out its prophetic role, the action of the volunteer must be faithful to several typical essential traits: the search above all for an authentic promotion of individuals and of the common good, which goes beyond purely necessary assistance, in the style of genuine volunteerism. ... This style proper to volunteers ... is jealously guarded also when it benefits from those forms of economic support provided by law for the carrying out of volunteer work."

At the end of the audience, the Pope greeted in German the members of the spiritual family "Das Werk" (The Work), which received pontifical approval in August as a "family of consecrated life", and he gave them a message.

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